I wonder if it is the fault of the dancer or just the choreography but none of the newer filmi dancers appears to me to be a patch on Padmini, Vyjayantimala, Helen, Meenu Mumtaz and other dancers of the B/W era.

By the way, thats a great screenshot of your favorite in the banner. Is it from Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai?

Well, Bollyviewer, here I was thinking it’s time to give a little more credit to some of the somewhat more contemporary filmi dancers (even if I am straying a bit from Bollywood), and then you came along and said this thing…with which I basically agree!

Bhanupriya is a pretty great compared to most that I’m seeing in most more recent films. I don’t see her as a memorable film personality like the great dancer-actresses in the old black-and-whites, but she does dance very well. I would say that I appreciate her as a classical dancer, though I don’t claim to be that versed in that area yet (though I am getting to learn about bharatanatyam a lot – but who got me started on that. :) I was more impressed by her dancing in the other movie I mentioned, but I think this clip is nice. Granted, it is a bit slick and crowded (like a lot of dances from the past decade or 15 years or so), but it’s intriguing how the crowd is used – I see all those women in the background as resembling insects of some kind, which is kind of interesting. (A translation of the song would be nice.)

Admittedly, I’m not crazy about the music that I’ve heard in this film, though this is the better song. And while I’ve been motivated in the past to praise Ilaiyaraaja, I wonder if he started to get a little too mellow in his old age. I dropped the other clip from this movie that I was going to put up because I didn’t like the music enough – in my mind, it was kind of like what you might hear on a “cool jazz” station, or Adult Oriented Radio.

And, by the way, Bhanupriya’s already in her 40s – that’s basically the last generation of filmi dancers (coincidentally “my” generation) from whom I can even name favorites… Shobana is up there too, whether it’s because of nature or nurture :) … I also think Madhuri Dixit is a great dancer, but I didn’t really love some of the mediocre movies that I saw her in, and I wondered a few times if the film experience was really worth it overall. I like Sridevi sometimes, but maybe too many goofy roles over the years (even if she is a good comedienne)…

I think the difference is not just the abilities of the dancers, but the whole thing. It’s funny, because I used to be very into cutting-edge desi electronic music (and still like a lot of it), but when it comes to taste in films and filmi music, I mostly like the very old stuff. Though I will take to more recent films once in a while.

Re. the Padmini screen shot – yes, that is from Dish Mein Ganga Behti Hai. But it’s not a screen snap that I made; it was sent to me by the same person who sent me the film. And I agree, it is great!

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